Projects That Change Lives

DEHOFI Makes Home Safer for Mary

One of the organization-wide goals of the Delaware Housing Opportunity Fund, Inc. (DEHOFI) is to provide financial assistance in the area of housing needs for working class Delawareans. They are a local charity originated and primarily funded by New Castle County Realtors. DEHOFI is on the move again. On August 13th, a project was well underway for Mary Richardson, of Wilmington, to do many small repairs to her home and one larger project to repair the water damaged ceiling in her kitchen from a leaking toilet in the bathroom on the second floor.

Mary no longer works but helps with a Sunday School Arts & Crafts program. She also cares for her grandson in the summer and on the weekends. She has been aware of these problems for about 13 years but commented “When you live with such problems but cannot afford to fix them, you just get used to it.” DEHOFI feels that no one should have to live like this. Mary learned about DEHOFI through the Swank Memory Care Center, where she is a patient. They referred her to Ingleside Senior Services where she spoke with Terry, who she later met along with Greg Williams, the contractor who did the repair work. Terry and Greg spoke with Mary about the problems she was having and they made a list of necessary repairs. The list of repairs to be done included removing and replacing the rotted ceiling in the kitchen, replacing rotted wood below the dining room windows to seal the windows and prevent a draft, install new crown molding in the dining room, hang a ceiling fan in the upstairs bedroom, repairing the handrail leading down to the basement to make it secure, installing a closet door in the upstairs bathroom and also installing a safety rail in the bathtub.

Mary was so grateful to DEHOFI and every single person involved for helping her by making things at home easier and safer for her. She said that the whole process was very smooth and once she found out that her project was approved, the work began in about one week.